Middle East updates: Many killed in strike on Nuseirat camp

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, after meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a day earlier.

Sullivan spoke with Netanyahu and his team about his meetings in Saudi Arabia and "the potential that may now be available for Israel, as well as the Palestinian people," according to a White House statement.

The two also discussed Israel's war against Hamas militants in Gaza and the need to minimize civilian casualties.

"Mr. Sullivan reaffirmed the need for Israel to connect its military operations to a political strategy that can ensure the lasting defeat of Hamas, the release of all the hostages, and a better future for Gaza," the White House statement added.

Netanyahu's office said discussions focused on Israel's military operation in Rafah, humanitarian aid and hostages held in Gaza.

Netanyahu opposes Palestinian statehood, saying Israel will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza, which has turned into a point of contention with members of his war Cabinet.

Saudi state news agency reported that Sullivan spoke with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the need to find a "credible track for bringing about the two-state solution" for Israelis and Palestinians.

The two also discussed a package of agreements between the US and Saudi Arabia as part of a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

US President Joe Biden told students at Morehouse College on Sunday that he was listening to their protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

"I support peaceful nonviolent protest," he told the graduating class. 

Some of the students wore Palestinian kaffiyeh scarves around their shoulders and Biden assured them: "Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them."

Biden said he recognized the "humanitarian crisis" happening in Gaza, which is "why I've called for an immediate cease-fire to stop the fighting." He added it was also essential to bring home the hostages taken when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

Ahead of the president's address, some Morehouse alumni circulated an online letter, calling on Morehouse President David Thomas to rescind Biden's invitation to speak at the ceremony.

The letter claimed Biden's policies on the conflict amounted to support of "genocide" in Gaza and was out of step with the pacifism expressed by Martin Luther King Jr., a Morehouse graduate.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said in a statement Sunday that at least 35,456 people have been killed in the territory, up 70 over the last 24 hours.

This comes after more than seven months of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants.

The ministry statement added that 79,476 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.

The Israeli army says it is checking reports by Gaza officials that one of its strikes overnight to Sunday killed at least 24 people and wounded several more in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip.

Gaza's civil defense agency said that the strike hit a family house.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said several children were among the wounded.

Earlier, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital had put the death toll at 20.

As fighting across the Gaza Strip continues, both sides are reporting rising death tolls.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that two Israeli soldiers were killed on Saturday in a clash with Palestinian militants in the southern part of the enclave.

The Israeli army has been concentrating military operations on the region in what it says is a bid to root out remaining Hamas fighters holed up there.

This comes as a Gaza hospital reports that at least 20 Palestinians were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike that hit a refugee camp in the center of the territory.

"We received 20 fatalities and several wounded after an Israeli air strike targeted a house belonging to the Hassan family in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza," the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said in a statement. 

The Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that the wounded included several children.

The Nuseirat camp has been the scene of fierce fighting and Israeli aerial attacks since early May, when the IDF began its operation focusing on the southern city of Rafah.

Israel's military says 281 soldiers have been killed in fighting since its first ground incursions in Gaza on October 20.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says 35,386 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its offensive in response to October 7 raids by Hamas in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing rising calls at home and abroad to come up with viable plans for the administration of Gaza once peace has been restored there.

On Saturday, his main political rival, Benny Gantz, who is a member of the War Cabinet, said he would leave the government on June 8 if a credible plan was not in place.

Such a plan should include having an international, Arab and Palestinian administration to handle civilian affairs in Gaza, he said.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, another Cabinet member, has also called for a plan forseeing Palestinian administration of the enclave.

The US, Israel's most important ally, has meanwhile urged that Gaza be governed by a revamped Palestinian Authority, backed by Arab states, before it achieves eventual statehood.

Netanyahu has said that it is impossible to make any such plans until Hamas is defeated.

But he has so far ruled out any role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and has voiced frequent opposition, shared by his government, to Palestinian statehood.

US President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and a package of agreements between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The two met in the Saudi city of Dhahran and reviewed "the semi-final version of the draft strategic agreements between the two countries, which are almost being finalized," according to a Saudi statement.

They also discussed a "credible track for bringing about the two-state solution" for Israelis and Palestinians, to stop the war in Gaza and facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid, the statement said. 

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said earlier in the month that the United States and Saudi Arabia were very close to reaching an agreement on the bilateral pieces of a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Reuters news agency reported the agreement between Washington and Riyadh entails an agreement for US security guarantees and civilian nuclear assistance, among other things.

Later on Sunday, Sullivan is scheduled to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel.

rm/sms (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)